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I am soon going to trim a house that has a short wall between the kitchen and family room. The wall is about 6″ above the countertop. The customer wants to have a oak cap on the wall. I have done this many times before, but on this one the customer insists on a 14″ wide cap, preferably solid wood. The wall is framed with 2×6 lumber, they want only a 2″ overhang on one side so it will be 6 1/2″ on the other side. I have considered using plywood with a with a bullnose banding, but the solid wood would look much better, as i could use Quartersawn. But i am a little conserned about the large overhang. The wall turns twice at 45 degrees, so I am think of maybe 5/4 stock, and biscuit join the miters. Do you think I would have a problem with the miters opening, since We are dealing with a 14″ width.
Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated Thanks
Bob
Bob
Replies
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I'd consider a blind spline instead of biscuits. Will 5/4 look substantial enough for that wide of a board? How about a board that wide and that thin cupping?
Talk over the downsides (wood movement) with the homeowner. If no cap runs are over 8' (no butt seams) I'd consider two layers of 3/4 ply with 1.5" edge banding. The banding could either be a tape veneer, or if you want to detail the cap edges you could run a solid hardwood banding. You can disguise the ply/solid banding seam in the edge detail or run a complementary/contrasting inlay and highlight it.
The double ply would be plenty stable...but I'd still run the spline...or two.
*How about starting with 8/4. Bullnose the edges then dado out the thickness of the wall from the back of the boards leaving the overhangs full 8/4 and the section over the wall 5/4 or 6/4. Then cut your miters and spline, dowel, biscuit join the cap together. The cap could then be screwed in place with 1 row of screws running down the center of the section above the wall.As for the 6.5 inch overhang, consider making fine brackets that could be let into dadoes that stop behind the bottom radius of the bullnose. If you wanted to get fancy, these could be sliding dovetails, which would allow you to fasten the whole assembly with the bracket mounting screws and that single row holding the top.
*Brackets would be a nice solution. I agree with not using a wide face grain board. You could also use a 3/4 plywood base with 3/8"-3/4" oak board top and bullnose oak at the edge as suggested, or oak nose and cove which might look even better. Quartersawn white oak is my favorite.
*Bob, you can order riftsawn oak plywood (red or white) from http://www.boulterplywood.com, double up 3/4" peices, and edge with solid wood. Riftsawn is easier to match with edgebanding because the rays don't show up like they do in quartersawn. You'll get structural stability, no movement, and it's relatively inexpensive ($100-$120 for a sheet-less than you'd pay for 8/4 material). I don't have any connection to Boulter, just think they're a great resource.
*Bob, I don't think you'll have a cupping problem w/ 5/4 quartersawn oak. If the wood's acclimated to a heated/ac ed house the miter shouldn't open up. I would personally use biscuits ( and as many as I could) 'cause of the swelling thing they do, adhesive to the top plate and screw w/ plugs. Besides, it is what the client wants, right?
*Bob, I did a similar jop recently. Not quite as wide, 10 iches. I used two layers of oak plywwod and an oak edgeband routed to a bulnose. This one had an ock apron under it, so I drilled pilot holes at 45 degrees through the side of the wall top plate (before the install so you can see the nails), and after a liberal application of PL200 pulled the cap down with 3 inch DW srews. No fasteners seen from the top and the apron hid the scews. I had pre-assembled the whole top off of a luann template because although the corner (2) of the wall were 45s' the customer wanted radius on the top. I used double layers of biscuit for my joints. Everything is rock solid. In fact I think it took some of the wobble out of the last section of wall. LuckDave
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I am soon going to trim a house that has a short wall between the kitchen and family room. The wall is about 6" above the countertop. The customer wants to have a oak cap on the wall. I have done this many times before, but on this one the customer insists on a 14" wide cap, preferably solid wood. The wall is framed with 2x6 lumber, they want only a 2" overhang on one side so it will be 6 1/2" on the other side. I have considered using plywood with a with a bullnose banding, but the solid wood would look much better, as i could use Quartersawn. But i am a little conserned about the large overhang. The wall turns twice at 45 degrees, so I am think of maybe 5/4 stock, and biscuit join the miters. Do you think I would have a problem with the miters opening, since We are dealing with a 14" width.
Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated Thanks
Bob
Bob